Fallout: Treacherous Road
by geroni211
Summary: After helping the NCR win the dam, the Courier tries to relax, but something happenned that made the Courier return to Zion, and see an old, forgotten, friend. F! Courier, she also likes to punch people. T for violence and (rarely) swears.
1. Chapter 1

After heavy fighting, the Legate fell down, dead.

"He was a tough one, even for a Legion" The Courier thought, not noticing she said it too "I'm sad i couldn't convince him. It would have been nice to avoid bloodshed, for a change."

"This isn't a land where it's that easy to avoid bloodshed. Especially, if you are natural enemies" Boone answered

As they were about to leave back to the Dam, the Legate coughed some blood off and started whispering something, the Courier went closer to understand what he was saying:

" The phoenix will rise from its ashes again!" And the Legate started coughing furiously

" What do you mean by that? What do you mean!" The Courier yelled

The Legate showed a cruel smile and continued:

" You will be crushed by the Emperor's power!" And with a few last coughs, rested his head on the ground, and died.

"What did he say?" Boone asked

"Something about the phoenix rising from its ashes and that we would be crushed by the emperor" The Courier answered.

And as she finished her sentence, General Lee busted the camp's door open with NCR soldiers rushing through and congratulated the Courier.

" Nice work soldier, Without your help, we would have suffered tremendous losses. For now you and the rest of the soldiers have earned a rest, you will have 4 days to relax, recover and celebrate, but don't think the work is done, it's merely the beginning, we will now start on unifying the whole New Vegas."

The Courier and Boone let the General and his soldiers take it from there.

After helping to kill the last few Legion on the Dam, they went to eat.

In the cafeteria, they found about a hundred and something soldiers eating.

There were two groups of soldiers, the ones morning and crying for they're lost comrades, and the ones celebrating the victory and defeat of the Legion.

The last group was more present but the Courier felt it had to do with most of the soldiers being drunk.

A soldier, who was more part of the happy group, stood up with his glass high, and asked the other people to be silent. " I wanna make a toast. To all of us." And the soldier cheered.

" To the Courier especially, she killed more than any of us and saved many of us too!" And many showed that he wasn't the only one with this view.

" But more than that, i wanna make a toast to the future, to the, hopefully, peaceful unification of New Vegas under the NCR's flag. And also, to every life that was claimed while fighting for the NCR, and hope that no more life suffers that fate.

Cheers."

And everybody raised their glass, and drank to that.

After eating, drinking and talking, the Courier and Boone retired to their barracks.

After that battle, there were so many wounded that most of the rooms were empty so they had a room just for themselves.

The room was small, it had a mirror, 2 bunk beds and a footlocker and lockers for its soldiers. The Courier and Boone starting stripping to their underwear to go to sleep, but the Courier stopped in front of the mirror and started to think.

" What are we going to do now?" she thought not noticing she said it too.

" Now? Now we relax for a bit, catch our breath, and help to unite the New Vegas. Then... Then we do whatever we are want to do." Boone imagined

The Courier thought about that... that would be nice, to relax, catching our breath. Then she realised it probably wouldn't be like that. The Mojave has too many tricks up its sleeve to let she or her friends relax for more than a few weeks. Boone noticed her face turning from happy to a, much darker and sad face.

" Don't worry, Rita it will all be fine. Tomorrow we'll party with Cass, Veronica, Arcade and everybody else." Boone said as he hugged the Courier from behind.

Boone didn't normally use the Courier's name.

"Then the day after tomorrow we spend the day just you and me." Rita said romantically.

"I don't know If I can do it all day but sure!" Boone said grinning

" I didn't mean that, you pig" Rita laughed "Just you and me, having a romantic day. Maybe we'll go swimming to lake Mead."

"We can figure out that later." Boone completed climbing up to his bunk "Now I need to go sleep, all this fighting tired me out."

"This fighting? You were always at the back, with your sniper rifle, just pointing and clicking. I was the one dodging shots and punching people's heads off!" Rita joked.

" I was the one covering your back from the snipers and the ones behind you! If I wasn't here, you would have died a few hundred times, this week alone." Boone shot back, still laughing.

"Hmm, maybe. I still am the one who should be tired, specially after the Legate, that guy wouldn't die!" Rita said as she was going to his bed.

After a few minutes of talking, both friends fell asleep.

Rita woke up in the Sierra Madre. "How did I get here?" Her leg was stuck in a Bear trap. She could see dozens of ghost men running up to her, like a man checking his shot prey.

One of them got closer, taking a closer look. "Nobody leaves the Sierra Madre alive" It whispered. It held a cosmic knife. It used it to cut through Rita's assassin suit. It saw Rita's belly now. The ghost man laughed and cut through her belly too. Rita nearly fainted of pain, screaming. But instead of coming out blood, solid gold bars, and Sierra Madre chips came out of her gutted belly.

"Nobody leaves the Sierra Madre alive, and unchanged!" She could hear loudly.

"Rick, wake up! Rita!" The Courier woke up, with Boone shaking his body. Rita could feel herself sweating a lot.

"What happened?" Rita said, looking around, realizing it was just a dream.

"I could hear you mumble and moving in your bed. Then you said something about Sierra Madre, and started yelling like you were in pain. It was a Sierra Madre nightmare again, wasn't it?" Boone asked.

Rita could only nod in response.

" This is the fourth time this week. Its getting more frequent. You should go to the Followers, I spoke with Arcade, he said they had people who can treat this. I have seen other great soldiers get torn apart by PTSD before. I don't want that happening to you too." Boone said, legitimately worried.

Rita knew Boone was right, but nor did she have the time nor did she want to have to talk about it, to have to relive that experience. She just wanted to forget the Sierra Madre and all the evil and the things he experienced in it.

The thought about the Sierra Madre reminded Rita of the 3 friends he made there. How was Christine? She could swear he had heard that Dean Domino was going to sing at the Ultra-Luxe but she never heard anything since. "I wonder I they had him for lunch" she joked in his mind.

And so she fell asleep once more, this time not being tormented by the Sierra Madre.

* * *

This is the first story i wrote, so don't expect perfection. I would also appreciate if you could tell me if you found any grammar mistakes.

About the Sierra Madre nightmare, i think anybody who suffered through that experience would have serious scars after it.

If you liked it or disliked it, please leave a review explaining, i can't become a better writer without help.  
Since i enjoy his stories so much, i might take one or two ideas from comandocucumber (Your stories rock :P), but nothing too much.

Happy Hunting!


	2. Chapter 2

Rita woke up to see Boone reading some book.

"Look who is finally awake!" Boone said "Morning"

"Hi" Rita responded, waiting for her eyes to adjust to the light.

" So, what is the program for today?" Boone asked

" I was hoping to go to the Lucky 38 to change our clothing and leave our guns there" Rita said. "And then, we can go and party with Veronica, Cass, Arcade."

"OK by me, let me just finish up reading this chapter" Boone answered

"What are you reading?" Rita asked, genuinely interested.

"Something called Wasteland Survival Guide" Boone said

" Is it pre-war? or any good?" Rita asked

"It isn't pre-war, it was written by some guy called Josh Webber and some woman called Moira. It's actually pretty good. Has a few tips that are quite helpful, you should read it."

"Anybody managed to make an actual book?"

"Yes, and by the look of it, they have it even worse than us. In this book, they say they don't even have a purified water source, and sounds like they have a big super mutant problem"

Rita could only imagine what they had to do to survive. "It's possible to have it worse than us?"

So they went to eat and after that, they packed up and left the Dam headed to the Lucky 38.

When they arrived, after storing their weapons and putting on a more casual attire. Rick felt strange wearing anything but a piece of armor. She couldn't recall the last time he wore any clothing that wasn't made to fight in. Wait, she did recall, it was when she left Doc Mitchell's house the first time after he got shot in the head.

The casual outfit felt strangely light and unprotected, Boone just laughed at his reaction of wearing it.

When they got up to the Cocktail Lounge, he found his friends there.

Cass was waking up with a hangover, unsurprisingly. Veronica was cooking lunch for everybody, and Arcade was researching some plants' possible use as a medicine, also unsurprisingly.

That day proceeded to be one of the days the Courier had the most fun. For her, Boone and his friends were the most important thing in his world, the way he wouldn't go crazy or decide to shoot himself in the head every day.

At night, they ate at the Ultra-Luxe (paid by the Courier, of course), then proceeded to gamble their caps out at the Tops and finish their night at the Cocktail Lounge drinking their guts out.

The next day, Rita and Boone slept all the way until it was 11Am, and they usually were early risers.

They cooked Brahmin steaks with desert salad for everybody and left, to go swim to Lake Mead.

Luckily for them, when they got there, there were no mirelurks nearby.

They started to undress to their underwear. Rita couldn't deny how she felt when she saw Boone down to his boxers. She couldn't deny it was a nice view.

They started to go to the water after flirting slightly.

The water wasn't too cold, actually quite nice, though Rita figured that after spending as much time as she did in the desert, any water that isn't irradiated is nice.

" Did you know, people used to this before the bombs fell. People would just drive to beaches, lay their towels and catch sun and swim." Rita said, remembering an old holotape she had seen.

"Those people were far luckier than they realised, they only had to do their work and win their money to pay the rent. No need to look over their shoulders to see if there is any creature out there trying to kill them, no need to count their rounds everyday to see if you can survive with them. They didn't have a care in the world besides making money." Boone said.

Rita thought about what Boone said, she thought about what one of those people would say if they saw people's lives nowadays. Then she remembered that there were people who did every day. The Ghouls did it every day. She could only imagine what they suffered if they remembered their old life, friends, loved ones and then realized they were all dead.

As much as she complained, she really could be a lot worse.

"I love you Boone. I really do." she said

"I love you too Rita. Don't ever forget that." Boone replied

Then, somewhere nearby, a sniper rifle echoed.

Rita saw Boone get shot.

She couldn't believe what just happened, Boone just got shot in the chest. Boone looked like he wasn't awake.

What should she do? Find the sniper? She hadn't seen any muzzle flash. No, no time to find the sniper. Heal Boone? Yes, the Stimpacks were in the pockets of her armor.

She picked up some Stimpacks and used them on Boone. She let out a quick sigh of some relief when she saw the Stimpacks slow down the bleeding.

Her heart was now working in hiper-drive mode. She dragged Boone's body behind a rock, while noticing the sniper wasn't making a very good job of hitting her. She noticed a group of armed men running in her direction, and not looking like they were on her side of the shooting.

"Dammit."

She ran to her armour, picked up her power fist, noted how she was just wearing her underwear.

"No time to dress, my armour. Can't get shot, then... Can't get seen, but how?"

And she remembered that little gadget she brought just in case, and let out a humorless laugh as she remembered Boone asking her why she would bring that thing, just that morning.

She waited for the group to get close enough, and activated her Stealth-Boy.

The group looked trained, and was very well equipped: Assault carbines, hunting rifles, and even one with a grenade launcher. He would be a priority.

She heard them talking, and walked as silently as she could as she positioned to attack the group, she got very close to them until she heard one of them say: "Wait squad. Look over there" as he pointed in Rita's direction. "Is that what I think it is?" Rita knew she would be target practice if she didn't act fast. She ran up to the closest two. She gave out an Uppercut to one of them.

With the help of her Power Fist, she broke the mercenary's cheekbone and sent him to the ground. She turned to the guy next to her.

She put one of her hands behind the man's head and pushed it forward, and gave her a vicious punch with the other hand on the man's face, essentially crushing the man's face in.

She threw sand in the eyes of the guy with the grenade launcher, giving her time to dispense of the man aiming at her head with a brush gun. After that, the man with the grenade launcher.

She got a nasty surprise when she almost got cut a new one by a man with a ripper. She

did a leg sweep to him, but he was wiser than that, he jumped over it, and punished her for that, by doing a nasty cut on The Courier's arm. Nothing she couldn't handle, but it still hurt like a bitch.

With the adrenaline boost she got from that cut, she jumped up and, like a Praetorian, as she dropped down, she punched the top of his head down, and felt when his cranium cracked under the pure force of that attack.

That was the last one of group. The sniper had stopped firing, so he might have run of once he saw what happened to the group.

In all the fighting she had forgotten Boone.

She ran to him, only to see him lying in a growing bigger pool of blood.

She picked up her NCR emergency radio.

"This is the Courier. I'm next to Lake Mead east of Camp Golf. Follow the fire trail to find me. Requesting medical help and escort to the New Vegas Medical Clinic, I'm not the one injured. Also, send a soldier from the Embassy to go to the Lucky 38 and tell the robot to call Arcade Gannon, tell it that its a request from Miss Rita."

She started to tend Boone's wounds, she could fix most wounds, but this one was too deep for her, she would need a surgeon, and Arcade. But now, she could do nothing but wait, and hope they don't arrive too late.

Boone woke up, his chest hurting, somewhere in the desert with Rita looking at him, and cleaning his wound. The wound; it hurt crazy, he was trying to not look hurt, but not doing much of a job at it.

"Don't move, you might make it worse, here, I'm giving you some Med-x, but stay with me OK? Don't you dare die now!" Rita said, holding back some tears from seeing Boone in such pain.

"I.. Love you Rita" Boone struggled, with his pain.

"It isn't time for you to say that, you are not dying today!" Rita said, not being able to hold her tears "It's not time for you to die yet!"

She started to regret giving Boone the med-x, as he closed his eyes.

"It's not time for you to die yet. Please. Don't die on me. Please!" She cried

Behind her she hear the NCR soldiers yelling for the medics, that they found the Courier.

A medic came rushing in, checked his pulse and yelled " He has a weak pulse! We need to get him to the Clinic as fast as we can!"

" Will he make it?" Rita asked, helping to put Boone in a wheeled bed

The medic looked at her, hesitated, and just said "i don't know."

Rita couldn't lose Boone, not now. Not after surviving a war. He couldn't die from some coward sniper who could hardly hit a moving target. Rita loves him too much, she needs him too much. She already lost too much, she couldn't lose Boone. Not yet.

She kissed Boone's cheek and whispered: "I love you Boone, don't you ever forget that."

* * *

**Sorry i took so long with this one, i should be uploading this more often.  
I also would like to release chapters with 2000+ words minimum, but some times i either dont have anything to add anymore, or i just think that's where the chapter should end. So i will try to give out chapters with 2000+ words if i manage to, but will give myself a minimum off 1500+.  
I will also try to release 1 chapter every 1 week, 2 weeks max.**


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